The Flash has had many HeroClix incarnations over the years, but one of our favorites is one of the first: the Jay Garrick Flash from Hypertime! He might be a bit pricey at 101 points but he's still one of the best Flash's you can play in Golden age games.

Take a good look at his dial -- they really don't make 'em like this anymore.

Continued below...

Jay's got 8 full clicks of life, but his his claim-to-fame is the full dial of Hypersonic Speed with a [20] starting speed! That's just inhuman! you can literally run circles around your opponents with that! If you're facing an opponent on a water map, then toss Frog Legs on Flash so he can run on water!

Sadly, he only has [1] damage for his entire dial, but you can easily work with that. First off, he's a Bystander Token killer, which is nice when people are abusing that 1-point-Lian Harper token; or he can shoot-and-scoot any figures that lack damage reduction.

To be most effective though, you're going to have to toss on a 10-point Armor Piercing feat. That one feat is enough to cause major headaches for any opponent.

From wikipedia: "Jason Peter Garrick is a college student prior to 1940 (later retconned to 1938) who accidentally inhales hard water vapors after falling asleep in his laboratory where he had been working (later stories would change this to heavy water vapors). As a result, he finds that he can run at superhuman speed and has similarly fast reflexes (retcons imply the inhalation simply activated a latent metagene). "

@Thordude12: No worries Thordude -- these are the challenges that make you a better parent.

I'm updating the Avatars later this summer; I'll be sure to add THOR as one of the new ones.

Posted by: The Le on 3/21/2014 7:23:18 AM

Hey This goes to the Le I am sorry for what my son said about you. And could you please make a Thor avatar.

Posted by: Thordude12 on 3/20/2014 5:55:38 PM

@superfriend: In terms of the Rule of 3, Jay wasn't actually that much of a concern at the time. Like you said, Nightcrawler had already replaced him and even Nightcrawler wasn't all that bad. It was really the Sentinel/Con Artist combination that brought the Rule of 3 into the game. (Although Mage Knight already had the Rule of 3 so it was probably inevitable that Heroclix would get it sooner or later.)

@superfriend: I actually tried an all Flash team once around the time of DC 75th. Terrible. All that HSS was cool, but the damage values were too low. There was only one opening Perplex and water was their mortal enemy. Toss some Impervious/Invulnerability into the mix and they were just running around to unable to crack those defense powers.

Posted by: Analysis on 3/20/2014 1:29:26 PM

if you want to try something crazy, run multiple different (or the same) versions of the Flash in one game to simulate his being everywhere at once. I ran 4 or 5 Flashes as my team in one game. All that HSS plus some perplex and some PC and some outwit.

Posted by: superfriend on 3/11/2014 2:34:12 PM

@ Superfriend r.e. hammers and perplex

I have no worries about perplex. If you're bringing 2-3 perplexers just to make him deal acceptable damage I'll nail your perplexers ASAP.

Good point. My initial reasoning for asking for the DC10th Jay is that the dial itself is a tribute to the original from Hypertime. I have the Akhham one, but not sure if I ever played it.

Posted by: superfriend on 3/6/2014 5:24:53 AM

If you're going to compare Jay Garrick dials then you really should add his Arkham Asylum version as well.

Posted by: Wombatboy on 3/4/2014 6:08:10 AM

"Do we really need to stop at 20 speed if his damage stays at a 1???"

Well, what if I use perplex or a hammer to make his damage 3 or 4? Before CT Nightcrawler, HT Jay Flash was the piece to perplex up to say 6 damage and then send across the field to pummel the opponent's best piece. Nightcrawler replaced him because he did 2 natural damage. This eventually led to the "rule of 3" ruling.

Posted by: superfriend on 3/3/2014 7:56:07 AM

Thwe 20 speed is quite simply magnificent! However I think I'd choose the DC 10th every time as he has more consistent attack values and is cheaper, meaning that with a few feats (including swingline to get the speed up to 17) he'll cost about the same.

All in all the old Hypertime Flash just shows how badly we NEED a Flash who is actually the fastest man alive in modern clix. The old Hypertime dial, knocked back to 6 clix with a minor stat-boost would be a perfect ~75 point figure. Never doing anything decisive but being annoying EVERYWHERE on the map.

Do we really need to stop at 20 speed if his damage stays at a 1???

Posted by: Mantis Warrior on 3/2/2014 8:30:08 AM

Nul's Hammer, Angrir's Hammer, Armor Piercing, Swingline

Posted by: Thomas5 on 2/28/2014 12:25:07 PM

Just remembered the feat my son thinks is critical to playing any Flash piece. SWINGLINE

Prerequisite: Boot Speed Symbol.Bonus: +1 to Speed.

Choose a character.

1. The character ignores hindering terrain for movement purposes.2. If the character succeeds at a ranged combat attack against a target opposing character with the speed symbol, the target gains Earthbound until the beginning of its controller’s next turn.

Posted by: superfriend on 2/25/2014 2:36:05 PM

@Le - thansk for adding the 10th anniv Jay's pic and dial.

I should mention, in case folks don't know, many of the 10th anniv pieces are tributes to early pieces, and the 10th anniv Jay is definitely a tribute the the Hypertime Jay figure.

Seeing then side by side makes me realize how much we lost from the original in terms of speed and dial length in order to get the JSA ta, the 2 damage and the trait.

My one disappointment with the 10th Anniv is the lack of All-Star Squadron keyword. the 10th Alan Scott Green Lantern and a number of the 75th Anniv Golden Age characters have it.

Overall, I really enjoyed the 10th Anniv sets in their "look back" at older pieces.

Posted by: superfriend on 2/25/2014 1:56:29 PM

@superfriend: As per your request, I posted the second dial on page 2.

Posted by: The Le on 2/25/2014 10:38:31 AM

I like this Jay, but I've been enjoying using the DC10th Jay as well. Maybe you could add DC10th Jay's dial for comparison. In addition to Armor Piercing, I like to add the feat that gives the effect of mystics for close combat attacks, Damage Shield. Keeps other pieces away a bit.